can make him give up his money.

"But they've the tricks of the world to make you look the other way, the
Leprechauns have. And then when you look back again, faith, they're
nowhere at all!"

"Did Mary O'Connor catch one?" asked Eileen.

"Did she now!" cried Grannie. "Listen to this. One day Mary O'Connor
was sitting in her bit of garden, with her knitting in her hand, and she
was watching some bees that were going to swarm.

"It was a fine day in June, and the bees were humming, and the birds
were chirping and hopping, and the butterflies were flying about, and
everything smelt as sweet and fresh as if it was the first day of the
world.

"Well, all of a sudden, what did she hear among the bean-rows in the
garden but a noise that went tick-tack, tick-tack, just for all the
world as if a brogue-maker was putting on the heel of a pump!

"`The Lord preserve us,' says Mary O'Connor; `what in the world can that
be?'

"So she laid down her knitting, and she went over to the beans. Now,
never believe me, if she didn't see sitting right before her a bit of an
old man, with a cocked hat on his head and a dudeen (pipe) in his mouth,
smoking away! He had on a drab-coloured coat with big brass buttons on
it, and a pair of silver buckles on his shoes, and he working away as
hard as ever he could, heeling a little pair of pumps!

"You may believe me or not, Larry and Eileen McQueen, but the minute she
clapped her eyes on him, she knew him for a Leprechaun.

"And she says to him very bold, `God save you, honest man! That's hard
work you're at this hot day!' And she made a run at him and caught him
in her two hands!

"`And where is your purse of money?' says she.

"`Money!' says he; `money is it! And where on top of earth would an old
creature like myself get money?' says he.

"`Maybe not on top of earth at all, but _in_ it,' says she; and with
that she gave him a bit of a squeeze. `Come, come,' says she. `Don't
be turning your tricks upon an honest woman!'

"And then she, being at the time as good-looking a young woman as you'd
find, put a wicked face on her, and pulled a knife from her pocket, and
says she, `If you don't give me your purse this instant minute, or show
me a pot of gold, I'll cut the nose off the face of you as soon as
wink.'

"The little man's eyes were popping out of his head with fright, and
says he, `Come with me a couple of fields off, and I'll show you where I
keep my money!'

"So s